


This is what I get for being friendly?!

by SmolKittenMozes



Category: Original Work
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-20
Updated: 2021-02-20
Packaged: 2021-03-17 10:14:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,639
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29591250
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SmolKittenMozes/pseuds/SmolKittenMozes
Summary: [English version]A shortstory I wrote for my Dutch class, but translated into English> Crossposted on AO3 & Inkitt> Ik heb een Nederlandse versie op mijn account





	This is what I get for being friendly?!

**Author's Note:**

  * A translation of [Dit is wat ik krijg door vriendelijk te zijn?!](https://archiveofourown.org/works/29567877) by [SmolKittenMozes](https://archiveofourown.org/users/SmolKittenMozes/pseuds/SmolKittenMozes). 



[2654 words]

"You spend way too much time with that freak of a man! When are you going to be home !! "

Aadya Khatri listened in grief to the arguments of her husband and daughter. The two had been breathing down each other's necks for several months now. She hoped with all she had that this was just puberty, even though her daughter was already seventeen and thus almost an adult.

"For the last fucking time Dad, she's a woman. And she's way more fun to be around than you are! "

"Don't strike that tone with me! In my time- "Aadya decided to interrupt the two before things got out of hand.

"Oliver! Come to the living room, it's dinner time. "

Seconds later, her ten-year-old son came flying around the corner. She smiled at him and stroked his hair. Aadya desperately hoped that his teenage years would go better than his sister's.

"My little genius." Oliver beamed at the compliment.

A little later her daughter Meera also came to the dinner table, clearly in a bad mood. Finally, her husband stomped into the living room.

Dinner was an awkward affair, except for Oliver, who preferred to make a face with his lasagna. After several minutes of listening to cutlery scraping on plates, the forty-seven-year-old woman decided to speak.

"Uhm ... Have you seen the new neighbors yet?"

"I didn't even know we had new neighbors." Meera confessed before blowing a lock of light purple hair from her face.

"We should maybe say goodbye tomorrow." And then it was quiet again.

"Say I was thinking..." She tried again, "We don't have a family photo with the four of us yet. Maybe we could get one made, Willem? " The woman looked at her husband with a hopeful look.

"I don't know, Aadya, that costs money and time. I still have a good number of things I need to do for my job, anyway. " The man sighed and looked at the family portrait on the wall.

The smiling faces were a sign of a happier time, when everyone still loved each other. A happy Willem de Boeck with his happy wife Aadya Khatri and their happy daughter Meera de Boeck.

Not that Oliver's adoption ruined things a little later, the tension was already there, it just needed a little push. And Meera's "rebellious" behavior proved to be that nudge. As Aadya's mother had warned her, 'mixed marriages rarely end well.'

As the woman had suggested, the next day she was standing at the door of her new neighbors with one of her two children. She knocked on the door with a jar of sandesh, an Indian dessert, in her hands.

It took a few seconds for the door to swing open to reveal two women. The first was rather tall and had long black hair tied in a tousled bun. Shaky eyeliner surrounded her deep, soulless eyes. Her clothes gave the impression that she was ready for the Apocalypse at any moment. The woman behind her looked a little more welcoming in her brown cardigan and Minnie Mouse slippers. Her bright blue eyes disturbed that feeling, though the plump cheeks and dirty blond hair made it a little better.

"Welcome to this neighborhood! We are your neighbors from the left, I hope you managed to settle down a bit? " Aadya immediately put on her biggest smile.

"Ah, thanks for asking." The blonde answered with widened eyes. "It could be better, but moving is not all that easy, eh. My name is Ilse and this is my good friend Sabrina. "

"Nice to meet you." The mother shook both hands, one a little too cold and the other a little too hot. My name is Aadya and this is my son Oliver. My husband Willem and my eldest daughter Meera are working on something and unfortunately could not come. "

"It's okay, but I would love to meet you all. Would you like to come over for dinner some time this week? " Ilse asked with a strange smile, while Sabrina took the box of sweets.

Aadya looked surprised at the duo. "Ah, um, yes... why not. When fits best for you? "

And so the de Boeck family was sitting in their neighbors' house on Friday evening, ten minutes late because of another discussion. The dinner went a lot smoother than most evenings, Sabrina's hearty quiche and Ilse's surprisingly good conversational skills were certainly to credit for this.

"So where are you from, if I may ask." Ilse asked, her blue eyes still wide open. They seemed to be in that place permanently.

"Ah, I'm actually from India. I came here when I was a kid. I got to know Willem here too and-" Aadya's smile faltered and her lips pressed together. "Yes... Anyway I am very happy to have my beautiful children with me now. Even though we are not all bloodrelated, we are a fam- family. "

Ilse and Sabrina watched just a bit too compasionate as the Indian woman tried to control her emotions. The look sent a shiver through the family. Oliver looked up at his mother with tired eyes.

"Mom, can we go. I'm tired."

"I think that's a good idea, honey, let's go." His father decided with his jaws clenched. The mother got up slowly, but was quickly pushed back by their hostesses. The duo forced smiles with an almost hopeless look.

"Stay a while, we've got some dessert!" Sabrina hurried out.

Aadya frowned and put her bag back down. Moments later, Ilse came out of the kitchen with a bowl of pudding. When everyone had had two servings, at the insistence of the two women, Aadya stood up again.

"I think we really should leave now." As if to prove it, Oliver yawned just then. "It was a great night with great food. Thank you for this."

"Actually, we still have something that we need a little help with, if it's alright." Ilse looked hopefully at the two adults.

Aadya blinked in surprise, but finally followed the blonde as she left. Willem went after them and Meera was also about to follow her mother, but was stopped by Sabrina's cold hand.

"I think it would be better if you stay here."

The teenager frowned and gave her a dirty look. "I think I can decide that for myself." And before Sabrina could say anything else, she'd already slipped away with her brother.

The hall into which the adults had escaped was narrow and barely lit, and they quickly lost even that bit of light. The deeper they went into the house, the colder it got. Moving boxes had been placed here and there, and at times someone fell over them due to the lack of light. The floor creaked under the weight of the group, bringing noise into the eerie silence of the house. The brown walls were darker in places, and you could see that, although it used to be a large and beautiful house, there was still a lot of work to be done.

After a while they came to a flight of stairs. There was just enough light to see where you were stepping, but the steps seemed so shaky that it didn't do much to reassure the family. Aadya had already begun the descent, and when she looked back she saw her children grabbing each other's hands for support. When Sabrina arrived behind them, they also stepped down the shaky stairs.

The air seemed to grow thicker and more musty with each step, their surroundings got colder, but she still saw a drop of sweat rolling down William's forehead. Meera started to have difficulty breathing, as if someone were holding a piece of cloth in front of her mouth. Oliver shivered and crept closer to his big sister, and for the first time her smart son seemed to have lost all the knowledge of the world.

Aadya was now almost certain this wasn't about a little help, but she feared what would stir in her imagination if she thought about it too much. All she could do was try to give the two women the benefit of the doubt and hope she hadn't put her children in danger.

She was pulled from her thoughts by the clink of metal. Her head turned to the sound and she saw Willem's body drop to the ground with a dull blow, Sabrina past him with a raised baseball bat.

Aadya's eyes grew to the size of saucers and she hurried to her husband's unconscious body. She looked up at the two hostesses, trembling. It was then that she noticed her surroundings.

Apart from the living room, this basement was the best-decorated room yet. But that didn't stop the uncomfortable feeling that threatened to engulf her, something was very wrong here. The dark gray walls fell into the background, sharply outlining the candlesticks along the wall. The candles cast a dim light in the center of the room, where there was a wide table. The table was decorated with more candles and a worn book here and there, but what drew almost all the attention was the large hole in the center of the table. The circle was just big enough to contain the average forty to fifty year old man, there was even the necessary chain dangling from the ceiling. Around the hole was a circle of runes and other inscriptions drawn in bright red color.

"What in God's name are you planning." Aadya instinctively moved in front of her children, a look of fear in her eyes. The blond woman in front of her locked the door and slipped the key into her back pocket. Aadya's throat tightened as the two women looked blankly at her.

"Our Lord requires sacrifices. Not many people know about His existence, so we have to make sure He is happy. However, because of the move we have not been able to honor him for a while, normally we would take someone without children but... "

"And, who exactly is this 'Lord'?" Meera raised a single eyebrow in mockery.

Ilse's eyes flashed at the teenager with a dirty look. "He is holy, we are not worthy to speak his name. I would pay attention to what you say, girl, normally we don't sacrifice children, but I am willing to make an exception. "

A faint sobbing came from behind Aadya and her daughter, and they turned. Oliver stared at them wide-eyed, filled with tears. The sheer despair on his face almost made Aadya cry herself, but she knew she had to stay strong. Terrified as she was, she had to stay strong for her children.

While she had taken Oliver in her arms to calm him down, the two hostesses were busy dragging their father's bodies to the table.

Oliver tugged on his mother's sleeve and tapped Meera's arm. When he got their attention, he shakily pointed to a window in the basement. It was relatively small, but with enough effort they should all get through. A little flame of hope began to burn in the three, but it was quickly extinguished when they realized there was no way to get there without the other two women noticing.

Aadya sighed deeply and returned her attention to the scene in front of her. With a lump in her throat, she tried to control her tears while the man she once loved was hung by his wrists. She wanted to walk up to him and knock the women down, make sure everyone was safe, but she knew she had neither the energy nor the strength to do so, and she couldn't risk the safety of her children. So she moved back with her daughter and son and dropped to the ground. She took hold of Oliver trembling as he sat down next to her, and tears flowed.

Aadya was nauseated at the thought of being forced to leave her children. Meera and Oliver would have to grow up without parents, without support. A small voice reminded her that it was not yet there, and she tried hard to cling to that thought. Still, it slipped from her hands before she could get up the nerve to do something.

Her husband regained consciousness with a shock, and when he saw what state he was in he began to struggle violently. Sabrina, standing in the hole with him, abruptly pulled back in an effort not to get kicked, but she eventually enlisted the help of her blonde friend. The woman squeezed herself into the circle and stopped the man while the other slowly began to carve lines and inscriptions into his body.

Aadya shot forward to stop them, but two hands on her arm held her back. She looked back at Meera who shook her head with a hard look, so she sat back down. And the three watched as Willem began to scream in pain, begging to stop. There was nothing they could do and it tore Aadya's soul in two.

And then the screaming stopped, suddenly it was quiet. Willem stopped moving. Then the woman saw it, a deep cut from one side of his neck to the other. It took her a moment to realize, but when the coin dropped her breath stopped. And then there was another scream, only this time it came from Aadya. She collapsed again and cried with her son.

Ilse turned to the crying woman with a soft smile that was not part of the rest of her expression. The mother hurried back into the corner of the room. She quickly pushed her son out of the way too, though he was safe anyway, Meera was already out of sight somewhere. Aadya shook her head desperately.

"Please, please let me live. I- I can't just leave my kids behind. I beg you plea- "

Just before Ilse could get any closer, she fell forward as Willem had done earlier that evening. But now Meera was standing above the body with a crowbar in her hands. It seemed ages ago they'd been eating quiche in the living room, and now it was over. Both Sabrina and Ilse lay unconscious on the floor, and Meera was already smashing the window in.

Aadya watched dullly as Meera removed the glass the best she could, giving Oliver a lift to reach the tall window as he climbed his way to freedom. She saw everything but understood nothing. Suddenly her daughter was standing in front of her and reached out her hand. Her lips moved and she frowned, but Aadya heard nothing. She vaguely realized that Meera was helping her up from where she used to be seated, and that she was climbing through the window. The glass cut on her hands and knees, but didn't hurt. She also vaguely realized that she was pulling Meera out of the basement in turn. From then on everything remained a blur, and by the time she regained full control of her body she was surrounded by police and wearing a heatblanket.

The police asked some questions, and she answered. She gave her testimony, but was not fully aware of it. When the officers finally released her, she rushed to her children.

"Meera, Oliver... are you okay? Oh my God I can't- "

She didn't know what to say, so she just put her arms around the two. When she withdrew, she checked Oliver from head to toe, who in turn reassured her that he was fine. When she turned to Meera, she noticed her hazy look, as if she wasn't there mentally.

"Meera?"

No answer.

"Honey, are you all right?"

Her daughter raised her gaze, and a single tear rolled from her cheek. Before they both knew it, the whole family was sitting together on the dirty floor of their neighbors' backyard.


End file.
